cal516

I have never hunted deer with a shotgun so don't have any knowledge on this. I have a buddy that hunts solely with shotguns and he is not having the results he wants with the slugs he is using. He is finding the slug still in tack in the deer with not much penetration. Any recommendations on slugs he could use to achieve this?

Mossberg 500
12 gauge
3 1/2

rogerstv

Has to be something abnormal such as shooting a saboted slug in a smooth barrel causing the slug to "keyhole" thus entering sideways.

I used to use Remington Buck Hammer which are no longer in production. They hammered the deer. A friend uses Lightfield. I've seen them fold deer on the spot.

Deer aren't covered in armor. So, no realistic reason for lack of penetration other than a direct hit to the shoulder bone. Even then, it would take a large bodied deer to have enough bone in the front quarter to stop a slug from penetrating. Shots too far maybe?

Bocajnala

If he's finding them on the deer, the deer must be dying, which means he's doing something right.

In my experience, most slugs are recovered inside the deer, still intact, but very well mushroomed out.

I have a baggie full of recovered slugs at home and will try to remember to get some pictures.

However, these are almost always recovered on the offside of the deer, just under the hide. So it is complete penetration, just not exiting the skin on the off side. I've recovered slugs on deer from 10 yards out to probably about 60 yards. None of my slug shots have been far. And most are very close, due to the thick stuff I primarily hunt.


-Jake

Bocajnala

Here's what I shoot, and the result of it impacting a deer. This is very good performance in my opinion ..






-Jake

Bocajnala

For some reason I double posted the first one. I edited that with some photos

-Jake

MudderChuck

I've never slug hunted Deer, but have hunted Hogs with slugs. At 35-40 yards a Brenneke Black Magic will go all the way through a two foot thick Hog. It is a rifled slug and I shoot 2 3/4 short magnums. 1600 fps and one ounce slugs through a smooth bore. I've used both a modified choke barrel and a slug barrel.
The Brenneke sabot might be a better bet on Deer and good for some more distance.
Either the Black Magic or the Green Lighting in a 3 1/2 should go all the way through no problem.

Just opinion, but expansion in a slug is kind of redundant, a 12 gauge leaves a gaping 3/4 inch hole.

Brenneke also has rifled barrel slugs, I've never tried any.

Brenneke does slugs a little different, they seem a little hotter than most slugs, the slug doesn't discard the wad (or cup) and uses it to help stabilize the slug in regular smooth bore slug barrels. I'd guess they own the patent on the design and aren't sharing. There is no comparison to the old Remington slugs I used to shoot, the Brenneke just does slugs better than most.

bronko22000

You never said if your shotgun barrel is rifled or not. If it isn't you won't get the accuracy you'd like from a saboted slug. You would be better served using a Federal Truball rifled slug.
I tried many different slugs out of my smooth barreled 870 and the Truballs gave me the best accuracy.

cal516

Thank you for all of the replies, His shotgun is rifled. He said he used Hornady STX in the past and he always got through and through which is what he is wanting. He stopped using them because of pricing. The pictures of the mushroomed round are exactly what he is recovering.

I will let him know your thoughts....thanks again....

hunters_life

Can't let pricing effect performance when it comes to slugs. It's not like he is out at the range every week shooting them. If those STX's performed, then he should stay with them. My slug barrel likes the Rem Acutips and they make a mess of a chest cavity as long as I stay within range limitations and put the bullet where it belongs. I won't say all slugs perform on deer the same as some do open up too easily and don't penetrate well but for the most part, most of them will kill a whitetail easily as long as you stay within the design limitations. An ounce or so of bullet hitting anything whitetail size is a devastator all by itself. Add in the opening and energy transfer of that opening of a quality controlled expansion bullet and you have something that not much on this earth can withstand.